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WORKSHOP ON SMART GRID

RECOMMENDATIONS
Emerged out in the workshop held by CBIP on 28th may, 2010

CBIP, in line with its objective, organizes topical conferences and workshops to bring together the stakeholders and to encourage an exchange of the latest technology related information. In this workshop, the very large participation by the interested persons from Government, Public and Private sector proved the relevance of the topic and the curiosity the power engineering community has in this subject. The workshop was guided in by a distinguished panel, including Mr. V S Verma, member-CERC, Mr. S K Chaturvedi, CMD-PGCIL, Mr. Devender Singh, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Power, and Mr. V K Kanjlia, Secretary-CBIP. Mr. P P Wahi, Director-IT, CBIP, conducted the workshop. The panel introduced the subject and gave a direction to the event. Eight eminent experts (named below) presented to the gathering the different aspects of the subject. Apart from defining the Smart Grid, the speakers apprised the participants of the state of the Art of the development around the globe, the availability of relevant equipment and application and the further Roadmap. The participants, thereafter, had a lively interaction to bring out additional details, for the benefit of all present. The presentations: Smart Grid Roadmap for Distribution utility - Mr. Sanjay Kumar Banga, NDPL Smart Technology and teamwork for smarter grids - Mr. Bhupinder Badiya, AREVA Ltd. Smart Grid - A road to future - Mr. Kuldeep Tickoo, Siemens Ltd. Smart Grid & Security - Shri A. K. Mishra, POWERGRID Smart Grid in Transmission Sector - Dr. Sunita Chohan, POWERGIRD Smart Grid: Concepts and Issues - Mr. Anil Sinha, Consultant/ Advisor Smart electricity efficient power for a sustainable world - Sandip Sinha, ABB Ltd. Smart Grid promises improved power quality - Reinhard Kuntner, Omicron Electronics GmbH, G. S. papneja, Kunal Sharma and Ruhul Islam - Omicron India (presented by Mr Kunal Sharma) The following recommendations have emerged out of the deliberations of the workshop. 1. India is well poised to take advantage of this new age solution, ,i.e. Smart Grid 2. The workshop recommends the adoption of the Smart Grid in India, at the earliest, while taking note of the experience of the development in other countries. 3. Unlike the developed nations, India is in the process of accelerated development in various sectors, including Power and Information & Communication Technology. 4. In future the consumer may have a choice of the source of supply, and will need to be better informed of the Distribution level options, to enable him to exercise his discretion. 5. India must catch the growth curve of the Smart Grid, in the initial phase itself, to avoid duplication of efforts at a later stage. Since the Smart Grid concept is still evolving, India must be a part of this evolution, and not a late follower. 6. Among the objectives shall be the Blackout Prevention, by the use of newer technologies, i.e. Phase Measurement Unit. PGCIL is in the process of installing 4 PMUs in the Northern Region and will later install around 25 PMUs in the Western Region, both as a technology demonstration, as well as, a pilot project to observe the dynamic behavior of the Grid.

7. The use of environment-friendly methodologies/ technologies must be encouraged. The Smart Grid will help in reduction of the Green-house gases by enabling the integration of Environment-friendly Generation based on Renewable Sources of Energy, by reducing Transmission & Distribution losses and by increasing the efficiency of the use of available energy. The use of Renewable Sources of Energy, e.g., Solar, Wind, Bio-mass, small/ microhydro, etc. is even otherwise on the rise. With the policies and regulations already in place, to a considerable extent, there is an increasing interest among the consumers to have RE-based on-site generation, both for self-use as well as to feed the excess generation to the grid. A smart Grid would be required to account for this type of distributed generation. On the other hand, with the encouraging trends in the area of electric vehicles (and other such environment-friendly transport solutions, e.g., Light Rail Transport, Metro-Rail, and the like, will cause an uneven load, which may not be predictable. A Smart Grid, with its real-time processing, would be required. 8. The cost/ benefit ratio in respect of the smart technologies is expected to be viable in the medium-to-long term. 9. The Government of India, through the R-APDRP initiative is already encouraging the introduction of the smart grid in India, Rs 200 crores have been allocated for the purpose of creating suitable Demo systems within the country, to prove the concept. The workshop welcomes this initiative and is willing to participate in the setting up of the Demo System, and gain experience therein. 10. It is recommended to spread awareness on the subject through Conferences, Workshops, Training programmes, and any other mode. CBIP may be the nodal agency for this. 11. The widest possible dissemination of the report of the new mission on the Smart Grid, being set up under the leadership of Mr Pitroda is recommended. CBIP, as a nodal organization of Power Engineers, can play an active role in this process. 12. One major challenge for the introduction of the Smart Grid is the availability of competent and trained manpower. The power-sector authorities must identify the capacity-building requirement, and plan ahead. 13. It is recommended that the organizations in the country responsible for Generation, Transmission or Distribution of power should take up the grid under their control for upgradation to Smart Grid. This can be done in stages for ease of implementation, spreading new investment and for protecting existing infrastructure. All the future Grid Systems should be smart right at the planning stage itself. 14. Further extension of the Smart Grid to the consumer area depends on the policy and regulatory framework at that time point. However, Smart Meters will be the future; for realtime information & also to help in better tailoring of operations & planning. 15. It is recommended to the ministry and to the Forum of Regulators to take up the creation of the necessary Policy and Regulatory framework, as well as, the applicable tariff (including the dynamic tariff), to enable proper definition and operation of the Smart Grid in the country. 16. The authorities may also examine to fill in the gaps, if any, in respect of the Distributed Generation/ storage at the consumer premises, including feeding of excess power in to the Grid. A pre-requisite for this may be the wide-spread adaptation of the Smart Meter, with bidirectional metering capability. 17. Further, it is expected that as part of the policy, the government will also address the responsibility/ liability of the Utility in respect of the data protection, security and misuse of infrastructure, to protect the retail consumer. 18. It is recognized that conversion to Smart Grid is investment intensive activity and may require fiscal support from the government. 19. Consumer participation will be crucial to the implementation of the Smart Grid for functions such as Bi-directional power flow, Direct Load Control, PQ management, Dynamic Tariff,

etc. This requires an informed and enabled consumer. A suitable mechanism and a roll-out plan have to be devised for this purpose. 20. With the increased use of Information and Communication Technology in the Smart Grid, the important issues of Information Security & Network Security become imperative. These will require technological, design, operational and Regulatory/ Policy inputs, to be effective. The Government and the Regulators will have to intervene here, supported by the utilities, the vendors and the standards issuing bodies.

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